The data on the fourth vaccination has not been very promising so far. Doctors therefore only recommend them for risk groups. However, a new study now shows that the effect of the second booster could be better than expected.
How useful is the fourth vaccination? Doctors and politicians have been discussing this question for months. Most are skeptical. For example, virologist Hendrik Streeck recently spoke out in the “Welt” against a fourth corona vaccination in healthy young people. There is “no data that a fourth vaccination can lead to an improvement,” he emphasized. The President of the German Society for Immunology, Christine Falk, also explained in the FOCUS online interview: “In the case of the immune healthy, the additional protection through further immunization is really negligible.”
The background to these assessments is primarily study results from Israel. So far, they had only pointed out a very small additional benefit of a fourth corona vaccination dose in protection against omicron infections. Overall, the data suggested that a fourth dose does not further increase immunity, but simply restores peak levels, the scientists stated. In January 2022, Israel was the first country in the world to use four vaccinations for the general public.
A new study from Great Britain now comes to a different conclusion. Accordingly, the fourth vaccination for immune protection against Covid disease could bring significantly more.
For their study, researchers, including from Oxford University, London Imperial College and Southampton University Hospital, analyzed data from 166 patients, all of whom had received a third dose of Biontech and then either a fourth dose of Biontech or Moderna. Their average age was around 70 years. The researchers compared the levels of antibodies 28 days after the third and 14 days after the fourth vaccination. These antibodies are directed against the spike protein of the coronavirus. Since the virus enters human cells using this protein, vaccines are designed to attack it. The scientists published their results in the journal The Lancet.
Effectiveness:
The researchers write that the T-cell response was also strengthened by the fourth vaccination. “The peak responses after the fourth dose were similar and possibly better than the peak responses after the third dose,” they conclude from their data. Thus, the fourth vaccination could do more than just restore the condition of the third dose, as the study from Israel suggested.
In Germany, the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) has so far only recommended the fourth vaccination to certain groups.
The experts advise no earlier than three months after the first booster
At the earliest six months after the first booster, the recommendation for renewed vaccination also applies to
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has repeatedly spoken out in favor of a second booster from the age of 60. A Stiko recommendation that has been changed to this effect is not yet foreseeable. According to the experts, anyone who belongs to the groups for which the Stiko recommends a fourth vaccination but became infected after the first booster does not need any further vaccination for the time being.
